This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Female mosquitoes need blood to produce eggs. While much research has focused on how these hungry mosquitoes find their targets, less is known about what happens after they land on skin.
Yet, a better understanding may allow researchers to find new ways of preventing bites that transmit diseases like malaria and dengue. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have taken the first step by conducting a series of experiments that provide more insight into the carefully coordinated choreography behind a mosquito's blood meal. They describe this process in their new study, published in Science Advances.
The team set out to analyze the real-time above- and below-skin behavior of Anopheles coluzzii female mosquitoes, which are known for carrying malaria. They used high-speed video and automated body tracking with electrical recordings that indirectly measured activity beneath the skin of a human subject while allowing uninfected mosquitoes unrestricted bite access. A very fine wire was attached to the mosquitoes for the electrical measurements, which recorded tiny changes in voltage when the mosquitoes' mouthpieces pierced the skin surface.
The electrical recordings distinguished five separate stages, including piercing, searching for blood vessels, blood intake, mouthpart retraction and final withdrawal. A sort of choreographed movement accompanied the bite. The mosquito coordinated its front legs, piercing mouthparts and paired sensory appendages called palps.
Leg bending occurred alongside the mouthpart insertion, while straightening accompanied pulling back. During intake, the mosquito's body was motionless. The study authors write, "The initial piercing of human skin begins with the female repeatedly lifting and sliding the labella (the tip of the mouthpart) on the skin surface.
During this process, front legs are briefly lifted, and their position adjusted on the skin surface. As the stylets start to pierce the skin and separate from the labial sheet, the front leg tarsi start to bend between tarsomere 1 and 2 (the most proximal segments of the leg)." Without ever touching the skin, the appendages next to the mouthparts, called maxillary palps, moved side to side while the mosquito searched for a blood vessel. Then, as soon as feeding started, the palps began to vibrate up and down from the surface instead.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
